0000 d 0000 h 00 m 00 s
by FiretruckYeah
Summary: Ian just wants to pass his last year at school with his friends, but Fate has other plans and somehow Anthony Padilla is involved in them. Ianthony. Background Marhinki. Highschool AU. Fate AU.
1. The Beginning

**Chapter One: The Beginning**

-0049 d 07 h 23 m 47s-

Ian Hecox had never been a good time keeper. He had been late on his first day of primary school and he had nearly missed his train that one time he had visited his grandmother the very first time on his own. Although his mom had tried to force him into being punctual for school by turning all hands of their clocks in their home ten minutes ahead it still did not work. Ian was just terribly unorganised concerning time.

And so it was no wonder that he absolutely forgot about his countdown when there were better things to do like playing video games with David or going running in the sun-drenched streets of Carmichael.

One night though filled by too many thoughts to let him fall asleep had him sitting on his bed, leaned against the cold wall and staring down at the numbers on the inside of his wrist, constantly running down. He could vaguely recall a time in which he had been too young to know what those weird, fleeting symbols meant and they had soothed him, for it was a constant and gracious flow of them.

Now, the effect had changed.

When Ian stared at the numbers softly rewriting themselves, dark in contrast to his pale skin, he felt anticipation, if not even panic building up in his chest.

-0023 d 16 h 53 m 41 s-

"I can't wait, you know"

Melanie gushed, swinging elegantly next to Ian who grunted unintelligibly, kicking himself off the sandy ground. They were out while babysitting Melanie's little brother Joe who was sitting on the climbing frame, cheerfully scattering sand on anyone who would pass it.

"Don't do that"

Melanie shouted half-heartedly, did not make any attempt though to stop her swing.

"Don't pretend you don't care about it."

Ian sighed and averted her eyes, instead looking up at the cloudless sky.

"How long's yours away?" she asked.

"Mine? Oh, like about a year."

He lied, smoothly.

"I've got exactly 432 days left"

she smiled, dreamily, and unconsciously tracing the to Ian invisible numbers on her wrist.

"Seriously, I am so thankful for it, I can already plan what I want to wear on that day- I will know I have to shave."

Ian grinned and Mel rambled on and on, discussing whether she should wear something cute or cool that day. Ian listened, relieved that they did not discuss the countdown anymore.

He only interrupted her when Joe had started eating a sand cake he had baked.

-0007 d 13 h 26 m 05 s-

"One week and school starts again"

David remarked, killing off Ian's character for the about twentieth time today with one hand and reaching for his soft drink with the other. Ian made a face having a minor heart attack when he realized what day his countdown would run out on. Joshua groaned and listlessly threw his controller away when David had treated him with a nice kick into the face as well.

"Can't wait to get out of high school" he remarked, grabbing for the bag of chips.

"Well, they can suck it, because it's our last year, bitches."

David highlighted his last words with a brutal headshot.

"Seriously, I'm never playing this game with you again" Ian remarked "It's time you stop being such a lousy cheater."

"Ian's just a little bitch because he hasn't beaten me once in this game."

Joven laughed.

"It's time Matt comes back from his aunt's so that he can beat your ass and you stop being a d-bag about it."

"Whatever" David grinned "You wanna meet up tomorrow to have a Mario World Cup of Epicness?"

Ian and Joven exchanged a short look:

"Hell Yeah."

-0001 d 00 h 00 m 01 s-

Although Ian had more or less successfully pretended for the whole day he did not know what was going to happen tomorrow he did see the count of remaining days change to zero and he realized that they would stay like this for the rest of his life.

Soon, all of these numbers would come to a halt forever.

-0000 d 03 h 53 m 49 s-

Ian woke up, strangely on edge, taking in every single detail of his room that looked like always, messy and a bit dusty in the corners. But now, it seemed to mock him as if pretending everything was normal would make it easier.

"It was your choice to tell no one, Ian"

he muttered and decidedly stood up to head for a shower. He was quiet when he was eating his breakfast, but his mom took it as his usual grudge and anticipation on the first day back to school. When he finally left his house with his backpack and PE kit he pondered for a short moment whether he should have told his mother after all, just to dismiss the thought immediately.

_No_, he thought while entering the bus and searching the packed seats of stressed looking first graders and gum chewing teenagers for Melanie, _it would do no good at all_.

He smiled at her and she enthusiastically started talking about something he could bring himself to only listen half-heartedly to. Melanie was one of his favourite people ever, but she would be hysterical, loud and embarrassing about it. Ian knew her long and well enough to tell.

The ride continued and Joven entered after a while, sitting behind them and inventing a list with Melanie naming all the things they had to do for the last time today and agreed that they both certainly would not miss the welcoming assembly taking up their first period today.

Ian subtly glanced at his wrist.

-0000 d 01 h 33 m 14 s-

Finally, they exited the bus to be met by the great, ugly building they had so desperately avoided all summer long and it made Ian's stomach lurch when he thought of what it had in store for him today. They were joined by their friend Ryan and David who had come by bike, joking and laughing about something. Ian forced himself to laugh when they retold it, not even hearing what they were saying.

The corridors were filled, mostly by people Ian had not felt the desire to see again. He might have slammed his locker door a bit harder than necessary after stashing his track kit away, but it didn't resolve the tension in his chest like he had hoped.

-0000 d 01 h 03 m 47 s-

Assembly hall filled with hundreds of reluctant faces and they searched for a seat at the very back of the hall. Ian had never in his whole life managed to stay focussed for the whole speech the Head master always gave, rambling about a "fresh, new start", "amazing opportunities" and "values of the community of the school", but this year he did not listen to a single word, instead watching the numbers run and fade on his arm, his heart beating in sync with them.

-0000 d 00 h 13 m 24 s-

Assembly was finished and they all made their way to the different classroom, Ian looking at his time table to realize he had English first.

"You in my course? Awesome"

David grinned and raised his hand for a high five that Ian returned, feeling as if his arm was shaking uncontrollably when he raised it.

"Ugh, we're up on second floor"

they climbed up the stuffy, old staircase ringing with chatter and laughter.

Room 251 was already filled by most students, but a few seats were not taken yet. They slumped down in some chairs in third row and David started eating a tuna sandwich.

Ian's stomach rebelled already at the thought of food.

-0000 d 00 h 02 m 15 s-

His heart rate was out of his control and he was glad he was sitting. Subtly, he glanced around.

_It's none of these idiots. Good. _

He was tapping rhythms on his desk to distract himself, but he couldn't even fool himself.

-0000 d 00 h 01 m 00 s-

Panic bubbled up in his chest when he slowly saw the room filling, nearly every seat was taken by now. Where was she going to sit? He filtered every noise out, as if he was turning down the volume of a radio, mushy noise in the back of his head.

Half a minute left.

David was starting to reluctantly pack away his sandwich and turned to Ian:

"Hey, you have a pen?"

Ian wordlessly pressed a stylo into his hand.

17 seconds left.

What if she did not turn up?

15 seconds left.

What if there was nobody to come? Was that possible?

-0000 d 00 h 00 m 10 s-

What would happen if he would suffer a stroke? He didn't want to die yet.

His eyes frantically darted from his wrist to the door and back again.

Three seconds.

_I will faint. Either that or vomit. _

Two seconds.

_I should have told mom. _

One second.

_I am not ready for this. _

-0000 d 00 h 00 m 00 s-

The door opened with a crash, when someone entered with a huge stack of books piled up in a wobbly tower in front of them.

They did not steer to the last empty seat across from Ian, though.

With a sigh, the books were dropped on the teacher's desk.

Ian's heart stopped for an eternity when the person finally turned around, gave the class an insecure smile and said:

"Hi, I'm Anthony Padilla, and I'm looking forward to teaching you in English this year."

* * *

_Hello again, my dear friends, it has been way too long since I've done anything on this website, but I haven't forgotten you! Hackers Always Lie. Sometimes. is also still in progress, so don't worry! It will be updated at some point. You cannot escape from it. _

_This is a new project I have started; it's a Soulmate!AU as you might have guessed and it was inspired by this post on Tumblr: post/85627609221/faggotsandcupcakes-xxarcane_

_I have also started an account on Archive of Our Own under the name of the_world_only_began_today where this and other projects are also being uploaded._

_I am honestly sorry that I am such a horribly irregular uploader._

_Have a lovely day, _

_Lucy_


	2. Standing Still

**Chapter Two: Standing Still**

Out. _Out and away_, Ian's mind was screaming at him while his body was sitting numb and rigid in his chair.

A fly buzzed against the window pane. How stupid to think of it that it could circumvent the inevitable.

Ian's knuckles were white and he felt the blood pulsing in his neck. He could only nod when Anthony Padilla read out the attendance list, only bow his head to his predestined downfall.

The time that had hastened so much, run headfirst into this catastrophe, now stretched like old chewing gum, sticky and repulsive. It seemed to have frozen, stopped forever like the small digits on his wrist.

The room was as quiet as it usually was when a stranger held their first lesson and Ian hated it, hated that there was no normal buzz of voices and scratches of chairs to distract him.

Mr Padilla talked on about their plans for the first school term and started handing out the books that had shielded his face from Ian at the beginning and Ian was met with a copy of "To Kill A Mockingbird". Even the usual moans and quiet protest that always came up when their old teacher had announced a new lecture were missing.

But now Ian's hands were distracted and traced the corners of the black cover.

There was, at least, a vocal reaction when Mr Padilla announced that they would have to start a reader's journal which was to be handed in at the end of the term and made up a third of their grade.

"For fuck's sake"

David grumbled quietly next to him and Ian who cast him a quick glance could see that his stylo was dissected into pieces.

Ian's nerves had already been dangerously strained but were even more tested when the door opened halfway through the lesson to reveal an uneasy looking, Asian girl asking whether this was the right classroom she was in and that she was new and had just finished her reception with the head master. She was extremely pretty and had a side cut that was dyed blue and wore run-down Batman sneakers and was seventeen minutes late.

Why had the headmaster taken so long? Why couldn't she have entered the room just before Anthony Padilla?

Why, why, _why?_

David shot him a look that suggested he did not mind at all that she was sitting right in front of him and Ian was cursing the universe.

-0000 d 0000 h 00 m 00 s-

The cafeteria was loud and bursting full of students that tried to either get their food or throw what had been inedible away, as well as people possessively clutching their trays to their chest trying to get a seat.

Ian moved to the old-established seating spot in the very corner of the cafeteria where their little group of friends had always sat since they had started hanging out together. Ian dropped his tray containing two soggy sandwiches and a pot of jello on the table, already done with the day, although he had only had English and History until now.

Ryan, David and Joshua were exchanging Pokémon cards and looked up open-mouthed when Melanie arrived, the new girl from English in tow.

"This is Mari and we just had Textiles together and she's new and so I thought I would bring her with me."

Mel chattered and the boys were all nodding eagerly.

"Nice to meet you."

Mari smiled shortly and Ian thought that it must be horrible to change schools for the last year. After a small, awkward silence in which Ian buried himself into his sandwiches, Mari asked whether they had any Pokémon EX cards and was quickly included in their trading discussions.

Ian was grateful that he just had to sit and watch, inconspicuously following his own thoughts.

-0000 d 0000 h 00 m 00 s-

_It had to be a mistake._

There was not a doubt in that.

Soulmates were supposed to be good for each other, right?

Someone to marry and have children with in a little house behind a white picket fence. Someone to hold onto and to be assured by that they would always be there, someone to love.

Ian was angry.

How the fuck was he ever going to live down that his soulmate was a man and overall his teacher? How was he supposed to act on something like that?

The answer that Ian got out of staring at the gray school walls, the moving by houses and trees was that he was simply never going to end up with his soulmate.

But who the fuck decided anyways that someone was meant to be?

How could some numbers rule over someone's destiny?

How, how, _how? _

His mother had made his favourite pie, sort of as a compensation of having to get back to school and was cheerily greeting him when he entered, stomach rumbling not half as much as his mind.

"How was your first day back, sweetie?"

she said, pushing a plate towards him, pie still steaming and smelling like home.

"Hm."

He murmured.

"How was the assembly?"

"Like always."

But unlike usually not the worst part of first day.

"Any changes in curriculum? Any new teachers?"

Ian's stomach twisted like a balloon animal and he stopped chewing.

"Mr Weston's retired."

His mum looked up from her own plate:

"Oh what a shame, you were so good in English with him."

Ian remained silent, hoping the topic would be finished and never brought up again.

-0000 d 0000 h 00 m 00 s-

Ian was still not very good at time-keeping and the minutes, days and weeks started to slip from his grasp, seemingly by the blink of an eye. The pages in his homework planner were turned, one by one, and instead of being filled with notifications about his biology assessment they were completely doodled over.

He had to do something in English, now that he could not meet his teacher's eyes anymore.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" though was carried everywhere he went.

It turned into his thing.

Like in his first English lesson it calmed him to have something to hold onto when he was at loss with his surroundings. He even brought it to his weekly meet ups with David, Joshua and Matt where it lay, ceased and for a moment forgotten, while he miserably lost against Matt who happened to be outrageously good at any videogame they played.

School turned to be even more of a place that Ian despised, because additionally to his English lesson in which Ian had to hide, Anthony Padilla one Tuesday afternoon turned up in his Track lesson, smiled more confidently than on his first day and said that as an English and PE teacher he was obviously very interested in the school's extracurricular physical activities.

_Then go watch the fucking football team!_ Ian would have liked to shout, but instead smiled miserably when Mr Padilla offered him a "Oh, hello, Ian".

Melanie who was in so many ways very similar to Ian had one significant difference that completely opposed him.

She adored Mr Padilla.

The first time her and Ian had crossed him in the hallway and he had nodded friendly in Ian's direction Mel had thrown him a blinding smile and, when they had turned around a corner and out of his sight, bombarded him with questions who this "hottie" had been, deflating slightly when he told her, teeth gritted, that he was Ian's English teacher.

For a moment of madness he thought about just telling her that Mr Padilla was a bit more than that to him, but immediately dismissed the idea again.

Why tell of something that had never been real?

From that moment on, Mel had made it her task to constantly look out for Mr Padilla and inform everyone in their group of friends detailedly about what he was wearing and how dreamy he had looked.

"A leather jacket, Ian, what teacher wears a leather jacket and looks hot in it?"

Ian hated school. He hated students that had annoyed him for half of his life by now, but especially, he hated teachers, particularly those that were supposedly his soulmate, fancied by his best friend and invading the only subjects he had enjoyed until now.

Even David was further in his reading journal than Ian and David had never in his whole life voluntarily even touched a book. Sometimes Ian even wondered whether he was fully capable of reading.

Speaking of David, he was currently sitting next to Ian in the library while they were supposed to do some research on the discovery of radio activity and rambled on about his Birthday party that would take place in roughly two weeks and that he still had not decided on a theme yet. The librarian, an old and ill-tempered lady, had shot them several sour looks already and Ian thought that David was testing his luck.

"So I thought about inviting Mari, that's a good idea, right?"

"Right", Ian mumbled and crossed out the scientist's name for the third time in a row. Why was there anyone called Becquerel?

"What do you think of a Star Wars themed party?"

"Hell yeah I'm in, but it's gonna be one week after the new movie's out and we all know it's going to be shit, so maybe something else..."

Mr Padilla had just entered the library with a stack of dictionaries and Ian could not help but follow the back of his head with his eyes, as it moved through the bookshelves and away into the Language Department.

He remembered that he had Track today and sighed, resigned.

Mel had started hanging out around the cinder track when she had heard that Mr Padilla was a new part of the trainer's team. She sat on the bleachers, sometimes Mari next to her whose nose was usually buried in a Comic book, and would join their team after the training, picking up light banter with Mr Padilla who always helped restacking the training utensils into the equipment room.

Ian would hover a few metres behind, hoping to god that she would hurry up so that they could leave.

Friday evening before David's party- he had decided on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme- Ian was alone in the changing room, stuffing his dirty track clothes into his bag and slinging it over his shoulder, ready to leave, when there was a light knock on the door.

Ian scrunched up his nose- Mel had a dentist appointment and the other boys had left already.

He opened the door and his heart sank when he saw that Mr Padilla was across from him, smiling imperceptibly.

"You forgot your book on the bleachers."

He was holding the tattered copy of "To Kill A Mockingbird" in his hand.

"You might not want to lose that."

Ian grabbed it and instinctively pressed it to his stomach.

"How did you like it so far?"

Mr Padilla asked, while they left the building and he locked the door up.

"Very much."

Ian mumbled.

He did not tell that he had not even started on it.

* * *

_Hey guys,_  
_sorry for letting you wait for so long. I love this story, but it takes quite a time to develop everything._  
_Thanks for being patient._  
_Please tell me what you think about it._  
_Lots of love,_  
_Lucy_


End file.
